The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, August 20, 2007 @ 6:30p.m. in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Richard Osborne called the meeting to order.  Members present were Marlene Allen, Sally DeFauw, Ken Andersen, John Hulseberg, Ruth Anne Tobias and Howard Lyle. Others present were Margi Gilmour and Frank Beierlotzer.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Motion to approve the minutes by Ken Andersen, seconded by

Ruth Anne Tobias.  No changes made, the minutes of July 2007 were approved unanimously

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Motion to approve the agenda by John Hulseberg, seconded by

Sally DeFauw.  Ken Andersen asked to add an item discussing a proposed halfway house near Herron Creek that was being discussed at the Sycamore City Council that night.  This was added after the jail report and the agenda was passed unanimously.

FRANK BIERLOTZER – DISASTER PLANNING GROUP

Frank Bierlotzer discussed the DeKalb County Emergency Planning Committee.  They are a companion group to County efforts, handling planning for chemical situations, distinct from the work of ESDA.  There are currently 105 such committees in Illinois, with one for each county and multiple in Cook.  They receive federal funds, about $5,000 for the year though they will spend less than $1000 this year through reimbursement from the State. 

Frank is looking for County Board representatives to serve on the committee, they meet quarterly on the 3^rd Monday of the month they meet.  Ruth Anne noted that Pat LaVigne expressed interest in participating.  Frank said that more information for the group can be found through their link on the County’s website. 

On October 3-6 BNSF railway is providing tanker car and engine leak training for local emergency personnel in Waterman. 

Frank reiterated his desire for 2 County Board representatives, when they meet and that they meet at the Highway Department.  He hopes one day to have a small portion of the County budget dedicated that committee, but that is not his main objective at this point.  Any Board Member is welcome to attend the training exercise in Waterman they just need to contact him to let him know they’ll be there.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

For the Public Defender’s report, Regina Harris was unavailable for that meeting as she had a conflicting emergency meeting for another board that she serves on.  If there are any questions about her report feel free to contact the Public Defender’s office.

COURT SERVICES REPORT

In the Court Services Juvenile Report Margi said that the same 3 minors were in residential placement and that there were only 6 admissions to the Juvenile Justice Center, down from usual.  With the Adult Report there are 456 open cases being managed.  Margi circulated graphs for the committee and said that Court Services is seeking to additional adult officers in their budget request.  It was noted that there had been no additions to the number of adult officers since 1990 and since then the average number of cases per officer has grown from 57 to 112 while the nature of the job, with urine drops and DNA collection, has gotten more intensive.  There has also been growth in pre-sentencing investigations being ordered.  This growth has made trying to meet evidence-based practices and doing the core work of that office, keeping probation cases from violating, more challenging.   

In the Community Service Report, a lot of hours were completed in July and SWAP is done for the year.

Also for the coming budget, Court Services is looking to spend less on juvenile detention and placement and is including alternatives to those practices.

In the Jail Report for the month, the average daily population was 95 and $16,800 was spent housing inmates out of county.  Chairman Osborne noted that April-July were the low cost months a year ago, so increases may be ahead.

HERRON CREEK DISCUSSION ON HALFWAY HOUSE– KEN ANDERSEN

For the discussion of the Herron Creek area halfway house, Ken Andersen said he noticed this item on that night’s Sycamore City Council agenda.  The proposed site would be on a 5-acre parcel near Herron Creek, with some farm buildings on it.  He said the agenda item showed the County asking if Sycamore would allow the facility there to be used as a juvenile halfway house. 

Margi observed that the courts are looking for more options in dealing with certain youths.  Ken said that it sounds like the County’s been sending the youths elsewhere but courts want something local.

Ken said there are other proposals being made for the property that night as well and wondered why the County Board had not been alerted about this possibility.  He said it sounded like a good idea but expressed a desire for better communication. 

Ruth Anne asked if this relates to the agreement with Kane County and Margi said that it is a different group of youths being targeted for this proposed operation. 

John Hulseberg said that the proposal called for the facility to be staffed full-time by a foster family and said that if Board Members had known about the proposal maybe they could have helped in some way. 

Margi said that the target population would be youths in domestic battery situations where perhaps the parents should have charged, giving an example of a parent provoking a violent response from a child.  The idea is to have a place where the youths would stay briefly, to be away from their homes while the parents are brought into the legal process.

John said that Board Members could have been good advocates for the program if they had known in advance and Margi apologized for not informing the committee sooner.

ADJOURNMENT

Ken moved to adjourn, it was seconded by Howard Lyle and the motion passed unanimously.

                                                 Respectfully submitted,

                                                 _________________________________

                                                 Richard Osborne, Chairman

RO:mcs

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